1. Field
This invention is in the field of toy vehicles, and particularly relates to powered, remote-controlled toy vehicles capable of being steered.
The invention is particularly useful in regard to two-wheel vehicles such as toy motor scooters or motorcycles. It is also applicable to three-wheel toy vehicles such as airplanes, and four-wheel toy vehicles such as cars or (with hidden wheels) boats. Certain aspects of our invention are applicable to steerable toy vehicles that are not remotely-controlled, and to such vehicles that are not powered, such as for example gravity-driven toys with mechanically preprogrammed steering.
2. Prior Art
Wheeled toys with banking mechanisms have not to our knowledge been extensively developed, either in the form of self-powered, remote-control toys or as unpowered, and/or non-remote-controlled toys.
Early two-wheel toys were of course unpowered and intended for simple hand play. Wind-up two-wheel toys were pursued very little, due to the problem of balancing such toys in operation. Wind-up toys motorcycles, for example, would naturally take the form of three-wheel motorcycles, or motorcycles with sidecars--eliminating the balance problem, but also departing from the field of two-wheel vehicles.
Some toy motorcycles may have been provided with sideward-extending support bars, perhaps with wheels on the ends similar to the "training wheels" used on real bicycles for young children. Such fixed supports would have the disadvantage of holding the toy vehicle vertical in negotiating turns, rather than simulating the behavior of real two-wheel vehicles, which is to lean or bank toward the inside of the turn. An additional and perhaps even more significant disadvantage would be that if the supports extended far enough to the side to prevent the toy vehicle from tipping over in a sharp turn, they would become very conspicuous, thus further spoiling the illusion of reality generally sought in a toy vehicle.
With the recent upsurge in interest in remote-control and particularly radio-controlled powered toy vehicles, there appeared a new approach to the foregoing problems of the powered two-wheel toy vehicle. This approach is typified by a toy motorcycle available commercially as the Kraft "Eleck Rider". That toy operates essentially like a real motorcycle: turns are to be negotiated primarily by controlling the relationship between forward speed, steering-fork angle, weight shift and traction, so that the vehicle is held in balance between gravity and centrifugal force without exceeding available lateral traction. Needless to say, such a toy is expensive, and extremely difficult to operate, requiring considerable perseverance in practice and the dedication of a devoted radio-control hobbyist to master.
Thus the solution offered by such a device is one which teaches away from that of our present invention. An object of our invention is to provide a relatively inexpensive two-wheel toy which banks around turns without tipping and which nevertheless can be operated remote-control by a child as young as five or six, without any practice at all; and by even younger children with a few minutes of instruction.
We are unaware of any significant prior art in banking toys which have three or more wheels, or two wheels side-by-side. An object of our invention is to provide such toys which lean into or out of turns in such a way as to enhance realism or create an amusing effect, or both.